An Extended Stay in Utah

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2011 trip so far: yellow-bellied marmot, mule deer, bison, moose, pronghorn antelope, elk, coyote, beaver, black bear, grizzly, bighorn sheep, wolf, mountain goat
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2011 trip so far: mountain bluebird, golden eagle, Indigo bunting, Lazuli bunting, Say’s Phoebe, yellow-rumped warbler, Western Tanager, bald eagle, blue heron, American white pelican, trumpeter swan, osprey, magpie, mountain bluebird, Clark’s Nutcracker

As we headed south to UT, The Folly added another state to the list of where it has spent the night by staying in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Blackfoot, ID which brings the total to 38 states! Along the way trees were beginning to change color and created an incredible palette of red, yellow, orange, and gold with plenty of green still visible. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year.

We arrived at Camping World’s parking lot in Draper, UT, on Sat. and had secured a room at the Extended Stay America just a few miles up the road in Sandy since we couldn’t stay in the RV during the repairs and needed somewhere that would allow 3 animals at a reasonable price. Each room has a fully-equipped kitchen (which was handy since we also had to empty our refrigerator), and having lived the last 4-1/2 years in an RV, the hotel room seemed almost spacious! During our stay, new General Manager, Becky, was the epitome of customer service, and she and her staff work very hard to assure everyone has a pleasant stay.

Our plan was to move into the hotel Sun. and move the RV over to the service door that afternoon, but the full wall slide decided to stop working and would not retract. Just what we needed…another issue! On the bright side at least it didn’t happen while we were in the middle of nowhere. The next morning the service dept. managed to get it in and worked on figuring out the problem on top of repairing the leveler jack and all the body damage from the accident. A huge thank you to LaMar, Wayne, and everyone in the collision service center for all their help.

We spent a week in the hotel, then about a week in the RV in the Camping World lot while we waited for parts to arrive, and then another 4 days in the hotel. During this time there were things we needed to take care of but we also found some time for fun. A couple of days after we arrived, Russ took advantage of the free Grand Slam at Denny’s for his birthday, and as we were leaving, we noticed this drawing on the wall created in 1997 by a customer. What an incredible talent!

Of course being in Salt Lake City, I definitely wanted to attend another rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Last time it was in the 21,000 seat Conference Center auditorium where they are held during the summer and Christmas seasons due to the large crowds, but this time we were going to watch them rehearse with those great acoustics in the Tabernacle itself…or so we thought. When we arrived, we discovered that the rehearsal was being held in the Conference Center again because they were preparing for that weekend’s semi-annual General Conference. Though disappointed, we still enjoyed the rehearsal, and before leaving learned that they would indeed be rehearsing the following week in the Tabernacle.

We arrived even earlier the next time so we could tour some of the grounds and facilities again. We started in the North Visitors Center admiring the paintings and displays in the lower level and met two of the young missionaries who are always available to answer any questions. We had watched a short video on the charitable outreach done by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and were amazed by the scope of their endeavors. Not far from Temple Square is an area known as Welfare Square, which began its operations during the Great Depression, and houses a bakery, a cannery, a storehouse, a thrift store, an employment center, and so much more, all designed to help people help themselves become more self-reliant and self-sufficient. (We had hoped to tour this facility during our stay but never made it.) From here we went upstairs taking the winding ramp that features an amazing mural of the heavens and universe along the entire wall leading upstairs to the domed area where the magnificent 11-foot marble Christus statue resides.

It was time to head over to the Tabernacle and wait for the doors to open. The Choir had already begun rehearsal and was in mid-song when we walked in...WOW!! The sound was incredible!! (And this wasn’t even the entire choir and orchestra since they would not have all fit.) We had attended an organ recital here in the past, and we witnessed the acoustics when a pin was dropped or a piece of paper was ripped in half, but the sound that reverberated through this deceptively simple-looking structure built in the mid-1800s was amazing. We stayed for about an hour, and when we left, chatted with a couple of members outside who informed us that the windows in front of which we were standing had the original glass from when it was built back in 1867 so of course I had to take a picture through them!

The Church also runs the Family History Library (FamilyHistoryLibrary), the world’s largest genealogy library. Founded in 1894, the current 142,000 sq. ft. facility houses nearly 2 million rolls of microfilm, 700,000 microfiche, and 280,000 books plus access to several family history databases from their computers and plenty of volunteers readily available to assist with any questions. The library and its resources are free of charge to anyone in the world which probably explains the average of 2,500 visitors they get each day! I decided to check it out and focus my research on my dad’s side of the family since so little is known and there are no surviving relatives. Shortly after finding a vacant computer in the main research room, Sister Eppich came to ask if I needed any help. She spent the next 2-1/2 hours with me sometimes researching on the adjacent computer, and I did find some interesting information. Genealogy research can certainly be addictive and I almost didn’t want to leave. What an incredible resource this facility is and all for free!

The local Sweet Adelines chorus was preparing to compete at the International competition in Houston in about 2 weeks, and I had planned to attend a rehearsal. However, it just so happened that Mountain Jubilee Chorus (www.mountainjubileechorus.org/) was holding a send-off concert free of charge. Not only would they be performing both of their contest sets, but also the men’s chorus, the Beehive Statesmen Chorus (http://www.beehivestatesmen.org/), and several quartets would provide some entertainment. Though the acoustics at the venue were not the best, the 100 member Mountain Jubilee Chorus did a great job led by Master Director Tori Postma, a woman well known in the organization and whom I’d heard about for years. The show lasted about 1-1/2 hours, and the place was packed. In fact they had to bring in more chairs and open the sliding doors to the room behind where we were sitting to accomodate the standing room only crowd. (As a follow-up note, Mountain Jubilee Chorus placed 7th in the world at International and won the audience choice award for Most Entertaining Chorus!)

One morning while parked at Camping World we awoke to find a cloud layer enveloping the surrounding mountains, and bet it was probably snowing in them thar’ hills. As it began to clear, we discovered we had been right! That’s the edge of our RV at the right edge of the photo so you can see how close it came.

Now you’re probably thinking that it was time for us to head east to Florida for the winter with a stop in St. Louis as we’ve done in previous years, and you’d have been partly right. There were a couple more stops we wanted to make, and we needed to be in FL by Oct. 27 for our annual dr. appointments, but there was a major change to our winter plans this year (and we’d be skipping St. Louis). We had accepted a campground hosting position at Greenbelt National Park in MD just outside of DC beginning Nov. 1 till Mar. 1…thought we’d try something different! Crazy, huh?! Keep in mind we haven’t lived in the snow and cold for nearly 30 years so this could be very interesting. Stay tuned!